It was media ink in 2003 that got me interested in Darfur and today, on Globe for Darfur day, it is regrettable that there is still a need for such a campaign. Darfur still warrants our attention and action, yet it remains the tip of the iceberg (rather desert dune or hill) in a larger regional problem. It should be seen in the context of highlighting a wider and bigger problem. Having just returned from the Darfuri refugee camps in eastern Chad, where I accompanied eight world women leaders, the plight of not only the Darfuri people, but Chadians, was self evident and requires no better explanation than that given by my wife, Mariella Frostrup, in her Observer article last Sunday.

Like most conflicts, the causes of it began hundreds of years ago but most of us only became aware of the unfolding crisis when it began to escalate in 2003. Rwanda was happening again, in slow motion. My interest developed and I was later fortunate enough to accompany George Clooney on his lobby tour of China and Egypt last year.

By that stage United Nations Security Council Resolution 1706 was in force. This included an African Union/United Nations hybrid force to be deployed in Darfur, but it still has not occurred despite reinforcement from further UN resolutions.

So too was the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), this was effectively a peace agreement to end the civil war between the more Islamic northern government and the more Christian/secular southern factions. By that stage the CPA should have been well down the road of implementation. However, Sudan's government was prevaricating on assisting the implementation of either as they saw neither was in their interests. Unrest in Darfur not only kept the rebels busy and perpetuated the status quo but kept the international community focussed on the unfolding tragedy in Darfur rather than focusing on ensuring President Omar al-Bashir's compliance with CPA implementation.

Such matters as the anticipated census, the north/south boundary commission report for 2008 and fair elections for 2009 risk being frustrated off the time table as a result. The northern Bashir government was seeking to avoid, at any cost, apparently even at the price of innocent Darfuri blood, the sharing of power with southern secularist politicians or the potential for southern independence.

In this context and after years of ethnic conflict stoked by the government through their backing of the Arab Janjaweed against black Muslim Africans and rebels - rebels who, like their counterparts in the south, also felt neglected and without any power sharing in government - the Darfur Peace Agreement was signed in 2006. But two of the main rebel factions rejected what were weak power sharing arrangements within it and as such there is no good road map for future peace in Darfur. This is because, what was described to me last week by the local Sultan, as "political anarchy," - the ensuing bloodbath - suited the government of Sudan.

With this political anarchy, international stalemate and hence, continuing tragedy, there was hope that the Chinese, the largest exporter of oil from Sudan and thus President Bashier's biggest source of regime funding, would begin to throw its financial clout about. From a tradition of non-intervention in sovereign matters, China has come a long way in pressurising Sudan with strong words and threats. They could and should do more. This is especially so as key boundary and economic issues within Sudan are frustrating the further implementation of the CPA, which centres on north/south control of oil fields and revenues.

Likewise, Egypt has oil interests in Sudan and is keen to exploit fields in Darfur. But refugees fleeing Sudan is bad for Cairo and being a neighbour steeped in Muslim tradition, they have and feel a moral obligation to stop the bloodshed, not least as it is predominantly Muslim killing Muslim. However, they, like other members of the Arab League, have remained silent on the issue. Several Arab League states believe they can be more effective in the background, facilitating peace initiatives, rather than providing rhetoric or making threats. But to date, their Arabic tactic is failing as much as ours is in stopping the killing.

The chaos calls for peacekeepers. The raped women I spoke to cried for protection. Indeed, these women - one of whom had witnessed her four sons murdered in front her - all said they wanted UN troops, not AU troops. They felt, from experience, AU forces could not protect their families. So, on this day for Darfur the message is protection, protection, protection. Without it there can be no peace agreement floating in the abyss of chaos that reigns throughout Darfur and the wider region. Europe is to be saluted for considering an EU force in eastern Chad, but being borne out of a holocaust, it should do even more to stop genocide from occurring in its neighbour's land. It is wrong that it has been left to a small handful of EU states, which, thankfully, includes our government, the French and the Swedes, to contribute towards and push for this proposed force.

And if we reach a plateau where there is a relative peace on the ground, then the full thrust of campaigning and international political focus must be on the implementation of the CPA. Indeed, the failing of the international players to keep a duel focus on implementation of the CPA at the same time as they focused on the humanitarian tragedy has prolonged that region's misery.

The CPA needs work; Sudan is not just a north/south political problem but also an east (Blue Nile), central (Kordofan) and west (Darfur) problem. These three areas share the same characteristics: they are poor, lack any real political power, lack government resources, are the targets of government militias and are powder kegs of discontent. Any day now, there will be a new campaign group forming - such as the Save Kordofan Coalition. The international community needs to ensure that activists don't have to form such a group.

There is a need for an all-encompassing peace process and the current efforts need more encouragement and focus. For the killing in Darfur is spreading. It has reached Chad; I saw it there last week. It has reached the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Central African Republic (CAR). Generally speaking, each country's government or rebels fund or assist the government or rebels in the other. The whole region is spiralling out of control.

When I returned from Chad, I was asked to explain why this was so, why was there genocide in Darfur. I explained the CPA problems, I explained ethnic issues between Muslim Africans and Muslim Arabs, tribal feuds, and conflict between nomadic and farmstead farmers, and it struck me that it was all too confusing and nothing made sense. I then recalled something an old Turkish farmer said to me long ago when I was lost, trying to find a small road crossing somewhere on a Turkish mountain. He laughed at me when I showed him the road detailed on the map and (roughly translated) retorted: "it doesn't exist, its just government ink." And that is the heart of the problem. The boarders between Sudan, Chad, CAR DRC etc are just that: governmental ink.

It's not a question of bashing those involved in the scramble for Africa, not least because it would be crass. But national lines and provincial lines - all government ink - cross villages, tribes, traditions and cultures. The ink broke up traditional control and rule mechanisms. The postcolonial independence struggle to re-establish centralised power in such countries has run rough shod over such traditional divides and control mechanisms as it has sought to control its new domain denoted by government ink.

Hence, great swathes of these countries have been forced into political servitude to a centralised government that has sought to rule it (the territory and its resources) on paper, but proven to care little in reality for its inhabitants due to inherent traditional cultural prejudices. The result is that certain regions have become ignored and hosts to an underclass. That is why they are hot spots now. The international community recognises these hot spots and is right to seek to install peacekeepers. But in tandem, it needs to invest more focus and recourses on ensuring that all future peace agreements are comprehensive within Sudan as well as to the whole region, which requires crossing boarders. If not, the Nile and the Congo will run red with blood that will flow towards the Mediterranean and the Atlantic.